Mostly sane.
No one replied to my request to feed the queen, not out loud anyway, but Amara nodded to me with a sad look in her expressive dark blue eyes, as I turned from the table, and then walked out. I had no idea what any of them really felt about what happened last night. They hadn’t bothered to tell me…
Chapter Four
I focused on the job ahead as I walked up to the bow. I felt like shit, but now really wasn't the time, I had a whole fleet to keep an eye on. We were still a mile or so away, and it looked like we were going to approach from the northeast side of the island and then circle it counter-clockwise, putting our port side to shore. I turned to the left and waited, it really wouldn't be long.
What made it so dangerous, was their wards worked like ours now, and we had to be right on the edge of their effective range so I could snuff them out. Which meant when blocking waves, the water, and air wielders, not only had to use air and water mostly from the starboard side, but they wouldn’t be able to detect movement in the water on the port side, because they couldn't connect to that water.
It's what happened in the last battle, only I could feel the approach of others, and only through their magic. Until I killed a ward that is, and then we had access for a few seconds until the next one came in range for me to destroy.
It was dangerous, and a part of me was tempted to just do it with one ship, but we'd risk being overwhelmed that way. Regardless to that, this new configuration should prevent a repeat of last time. It would also enable the ships on our flanks to add to the ships defenses right against the wards. Hopefully they didn't have any new tricks, it was usually two or three islands before we'd see something new again.
As we closed in to about a thousand yards, the rest of the crew started to show up on deck. It was all hands for a battle, not just one shift. It wasn’t too much longer before I felt the first ward, and I focused tightly on it. I felt a wave of relief, they hadn’t changed it yet.
I suppressed it, and then twisted the magic in a configuration that would make it fall apart. One down, several thousand to go. I started to regret ever coming up with the damned idea of networked wards. Except, without a diviner on their side, they wouldn’t be able to do this.
We hadn’t seen either of the last two diviners for two years now. It seemed as if our theory was being born out, the king was keeping the last two close to him, which was a mistake born of fear.
He should have sent them both for me, if it got down to them helping the king defend, well that would mean all the other islands were already ours. They’d have to reconquer all of them at that point.
I snuffed the ward network out one node at a time, and completely ignored the attacks from a distance. The enemy threw ice, stone, cannonballs, and fire, as well as the heated shock wave. The crew was capable, and the ward was my primary job. Especially since the first part of the battle was all defensive, all hands easily handled everything thrown at them, so I could focus on dispersing the ward so we could finish them off.
I also kept an eye out for that underwater sneak attack, which was the one thing they couldn’t guard against, though so far it hadn’t happened.
Last time, I’d been on the last circuit of the island to remove the last layer of the ward network before they attacked with it though, so I didn’t let down my guard. I also had a better plan for dealing with it this time.
After the first time circling the island, we were able to see they had fifteen ships in the northern port, and nineteen in the southern port. This was a rather important island on our list, as there were several smaller ones we couldn’t take until we had this one because of trade considerations.
We were ready for it though, we had thirty-nine ships in this attack, the other fifty-one guarded our taken islands.
Lia had been standing by my side for the last hour, silently. Sharon wasn’t very far away either, and although we hadn’t seen a diviner in two years, as usual Amara was warding our ship with Gorwin and Ashera during battle.
That wasn’t unusual, Lia being silent I mean. It took focus to handle what I was doing, but there seemed to be more to it this time. Then again, that could have just been in my head, I wasn’t in the best place right now.
I ignored it.
It wasn’t exactly difficult to do what I was doing, I’d done it so many times it was almost automatic, but it took focus not to let the mind wander. My subconscious did a lot of the work, but wouldn’t if I was scatterbrained. I dispersed the magic of a node every ten to fifteen seconds or so, which meant no breaks. That kind of thing wore at the mind after a while. Especially with all the defensive magic being used by the crews that I needed to ignore and filter out.
Sort of like focusing on a single voice, at a loud rock concert with thousands of people screaming around me. That was the best way I could explain it.
The one disadvantage of our new fleet configuration was I could feel the active magic of over three thousand ship’s crew, and close to two thousand others who would be the stand in guard on the island until the local’s training was complete. That was a lot of shit in my head.
“How is it coming Tony?”
I grunted, “No surprises with the ward love, we’ll have to see if they spring anything else on us.”
At least we could be sure any surprises would come from the island side, they wouldn’t be able to sneak attack us from the front, back, or starboard sides, since our water wielders owned those resources, they’d be able to see it coming. It was only between us and the island where everyone but me was blinded outside of what they could see with the naked eye.
Lia sighed, “I’m sorry Tony, I’ve been thinking and there were indications, clues that things that were off. We should have realized you didn’t know, but it never occurred to us.”
I frowned, “Is this the best time to talk about it? There were questions for me as well, I just chalked it off to not understanding women. I should have asked questions instead of shrugging it off.”
I almost missed one of the ward nodes, and refocused.
“No, it isn’t. The best time I mean, I just feel guilty about it. I’m… worried. Amara said Daphne opened the door to take the food, but she wouldn’t talk to her either.”
I frowned, “What would you have done if I looked at you with a confused and blank look, and didn’t even know we had a connection, when you’d been waiting for me to come claim you, after two fucking years?”
Her silence was answer enough.
It was on our second pass past the southern port when I felt thirty water wielders, along with those magical iceberg spells, start to head our way quickly.
I left the spelled objects alone, and attacked the people instead. I stole the water that surrounded and propelled them by their magic, froze it, and then formed spikes inward that killed them instantly. There were thirty of them, and I managed seven at a time, maybe a half second per group. It took me a little over two seconds to kill all thirty.
It worked, but I wouldn’t have had enough time if there’d been twice as many. I made a mental note that if that happened, I’d have to pop the spells early instead. I could do that a lot faster.
I went back to the wards again, I’d missed one while dealing with the other issue, but could handle the extra on the last circle.
“They tried that underwater attack again, I stopped it. I wonder though, if they have more of those spells on their ships.”
Lia looked confused for a second, and then smiled evilly, “You think they’re that stupid?”
I shrugged, “There’s a part of the spell that prevents it from being deployed unless submerged in sea water. A safety feature I could easily bypass. Still, you’re right, if they do have a stockpile on the ships, their commander is an idiot, or unaware of what a diviner can really do. Still, I’ve never seen a ship explode because a multi-ton ice berg appeared inside one rather suddenly. We’ll see what happens when we get in range on the next pass.”
Lia frowned, “We could
probably use the ships, if we can avoid destroying them.”
It was a fairly simple plan to accomplish that. I’d twist the wards as usual, but instead of destroying the ship, the crew would be knocked out by air users. Then water wielders would pull the ships quickly from magic range of the shore before sending boarders to secure the crew and ship.
The first time we’d tried it, the enemy guards on the shore had destroyed their own ship when they saw boarders taking it. Other ships would do the same, so often we only captured a small percentage of them. It was very difficult to board, control, and defend at the same time.
I sighed, “I suppose, but I want to see things blow up.”
Lia snickered, “Play nice.”
“Yes my Captain. You take all the fun out of life my love.”
She smirked, “I love you Tony, we all do. If that wasn’t clear. This is fucked up, but we don’t blame you. We all monumentally messed this up.”
I sighed, back to that I see. It was also rare for Lia to curse, but sometimes an F-bomb was the only appropriate response. I appreciated the thought, but I also knew the blame lied with me, not with my other mates.
I frowned, “I see it as my fault, not any of yours, but do you think that’s why she wouldn’t talk to Amara?”
I thought maybe she might blame my mates, for not cluing me in. I wasn’t sure how fair that was, it didn’t seem to be to me, but it would also complicate matters even further. Would Daphne even want us for advisors anymore? The four people she professed she could always trust had in her eyes, just betrayed her in the worst possible way. Personally.
I say in her eyes, because it was stupidity, and perhaps thoughtlessness, but not truly a betrayal.
She pondered that a moment before answering.
“I don’t know, she could just be too upset to talk to anyone about it right now, I don’t think she’s slept yet. We’ll have to wait and see.”
We didn’t talk anymore after that, we were about to start the last layer of the ward, which meant we’d shortly be in magical range of the enemy, which was when the intense and fast part of the battle would begin…
Chapter Five
As we hugged the shoreline and came close to their range, my job got a little harder. I’d have to both remove the last of the networked ward, and at the same time twist the wards of any ships that we got into range of.
Granted, we slowed down a bit for this part, we wouldn’t be going as fast. Still, that was about all I had to do, the rest of the crews would take it from there.
In a way, it would be almost easier if I just did it myself, and imploded all their asses with a vacuum. It wasn’t very humane though, soldiers in a war didn’t get very much choice except to follow orders. This way those that weren’t evil, just trapped in an evil society, would have a chance to get released eventually.
Plus, on a purely practical side, we needed as many of the ships we could get. The population here was sixty thousand, which meant fifteen thousand wielders, and seven and a half thousand sorceresses that I’d have to free their magic for. If the normal ratio held true, then twenty-five hundred sorceresses would swear fealty and swell our ranks. Fifteen hundred would most likely be guards, and the last thousand or so would join our fleet.
That didn’t even include the smaller ratio of male sorcerers, who would happily strike back at the king for his perfidy.
That was more than enough to crew ten more ships, possibly more.
Sure, we could build them, but why bother when the kingdom could provide.
When we came in range of the northern port, I felt twenty of those suicide bombers lying in wait. This time they were right on the edge of what remained of their protective zone. It would take them a mere second or two to get under the lead ships and suicide by activating the spell.
Looked like they were getting even sneakier.
I didn’t have time to kill all ten, or even set off their spells, which at this range could still damage the ships. It was a reflex, and unplanned, when I tore the water their magic reserved away from them, and turned the whole area into a block of ice. That wouldn’t have worked earlier against the spread out wave, but just then they’d all been clustered in a twenty by thirty-foot area.
I snuffed the next island ward node, and twisted the ward around the ship that just came into range.
It was probably a distraction I didn’t need to add, but I could never help but watch what happened in the meat of the battle while I skewed the odds in our favor. Even as I focused on twisting the second and third enemy ship’s ward which quickly came into range, I watched as the air users stilled the air around the enemy sailors.
Simultaneously, the water sorceresses grabbed the ship and pulled it toward our lines, while the earth and fire wielders tried to defend our soon to be new ship from the rest of their fleet.
The fourth and fifth ship came into range, and I twisted their wards as well, while I suppressed and killed the next node of the island ward.
I was a little strained now, I was doing a lot at once. I barely even noticed the concerned look Lia gave me, I didn’t have the mental resources to address it anyway. I’d also discovered, although not to my surprise, that the enemy commander wasn’t an idiot. Those ice berg spells were not stored aboard ship, maybe they were stored on land, away from the city.
Which meant… those suicide attackers were island guards, not Iziral kingdom fleet.
The ones on the first ship were unconscious, so I let that ward go, while I grabbed the sixth and seventh, and killed another node.
It was difficult, but it almost wasn’t fair at all. Not that fair came into play much during a battle, but between my diviner abilities, and the fact we outnumbered them two to one, we hadn’t taken any losses yet.
Strangely enough, neither had the enemy, outside of the suicidal underwater attackers that is.
The first enemy ship was moving through our lines, the second and third right on its tail. That’s when ships eight through fifteen finally made the decision to not allow that and focused their attacks on their own ships, one through seven.
I shook my head, they should just surrender in my opinion, all they’d accomplish is getting everyone on their side killed. Then again, no one said war was a sane enterprise.
Fire, ice, earth, and water spouts came for the seized ships, and were once again blocked by our own side. We were familiar with this tactic. We managed to save enemy ships one through five, but the new ones, six and seven, weren’t in a good position to be defended yet, and were destroyed in the hail of elemental magic.
I really hated this fucking war. I thought I’d wanted to see enemies blow up, that it would help dissipate my emotions, and let me get my frustrations out at my own stupidity and the whole Daphne situation. Instead, it just added to it, and made me feel sick as over two hundred were killed in a blink. I’d be so happy when the next four years were over. War was ugly.
Of course, it could have been a lot worse. We weren’t losing any people on our side this time because of our advantages. Mostly that was the case, except those times like our last battle, when the enemy managed to surprise us.
I grabbed eight and nine and twisted their wards, while I released two through five since their crews were passed out and we had boarders on their decks. I also killed another ward node.
Eight and nine were destroyed moments later.
Fuck.
It went on like that for a while, until the last three, there were no other enemy ships left to destroy them, and the guards on shore were too far away to be effective. That actually wasn’t all that bad, we’d managed to capture eight of fifteen ships.
We’d wanted between ten and twelve, for our anticipated additional fleet numbers, but that wouldn’t be a problem, there were nineteen more enemy ships at the southern port. Four more shouldn’t be a stretch at all. After that, we’d continue to take out the rest of the ward.
Only then would we land and disable and arrest the ground troops…
We did better than that, and took six more, for a total of fourteen.
This was our first island with two ports on it, mostly because there weren’t that many islands that had more than one. Even Pheles, with the largest population, only had one port. It was huge compared to most, but still only one.
Regardless, we had to use a new approach. We also knew with a sprawling city four miles long, and a few miles wide which connected the ports, meant it would take longer to round up all the guards. It could take weeks, if they go to ground.
We’d split the fleet, and left ten up at the northern port to watch for anyone trying to flee, or anyone trying to join the party late. The rest of the ships had taken the southern port, and then stayed there while we circled the island one more time to finish off the missed remaining island ward nodes.
It had been a long battle, due to the two ports, and just the island’s large size. I knew the ward I’d created to be released when we won, took up two large crates instead of the usual one.
The governor’s keep was in the northern port, so we decided to take the southern port using the flanking maneuver, and then move north across the city to round up any random guards, and then when we attacked the northern guards, the ships at the northern port would close on shore to help.
This was usually the easiest part of the battle, even if it took slightly longer. There were no wards to deal with, so I could just steal the air from an opponent’s magic, and hold them still so the earth wielders could bracelet them from a distance and the others could defend from attack.
Of course, that meant I’d be involved in every capture, which is why it took so long. Our troops could handle it without me, but that would cause a lot of unnecessary deaths, on both sides. My only real concern was the time, it was almost noon, and I wondered if we could get it all wrapped up before dark.
Lia echoed my concern.
“Should we wait, and hit them at dawn tomorrow?”
Tony and the Queen of Iziral Page 3